Defense, Labor HHS Education

The House on Wednesday passed an $854B spending bill funding the Defense and Labor HHS Education FY19 spending bills while pushing the funding deadline for the remaining seven FY19 spending bills until December 7. The bill passed by a vote of 361-61, a week after the Senate passed it by a vote of 93-7. Five democrats and 56 republicans voted against the measure in the House. The President signed the bill into law today. For the first time in 22 years, five of the 12 annual spending bills became law on time.

Defense and Labor HHS Education Conference Report Text

https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20180910/CRPT-115hrpt952.pdf

Defense and Labor HHS Education Joint Explanatory Statement

https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20180910/Joint%20%20Statement.pdf

Interior-Environment, Financial Services, Agriculture, Transportation HUD

House and Senate negotiators were not able to reach agreement on a four-bill minibus spending package that includes the Interior, Financial Services, Agriculture, and Transportation-HUD FY19 spending bills. Negotiations were held up because of policy disputes over environmental regulations, a pay raise for federal employees, the regulation of meat produced from animal cells, and whether to wall off certain funds from being spent before budget deficits are eliminated. A final agreement will now have to wait until after the House returns November 13. In the meantime, the agencies funded in these four spending bills will be funded through December 7 under the continuing resolution included in the Defense and Labor HHS Education minibus spending bill that was signed into law today.

FY2019 Appropriations Bills Status

The President signed into law the first minibus spending package, H.R. 5895, today while visiting the North Las Vegas Medical Center. The minibus sets funding levels for FY19 for the Energy & Water, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, and Legislative Branch spending bills.

Defense, Labor HHS Education

The Senate adopted a conference report for the FY19 Defense and Labor HHS Education spending bills by a vote of 93 to 7. Senators voting against the measure were: Flake (R-AZ), Lee (R-UT), Paul (R-KY), Perdue (R-GA), Sanders (I-VT), Sasse (R-NE), and Toomey (R-PA). While some GOP conservatives have threatened to oppose the bill because of the non-defense spending levels, House leadership is confident the measure will pass with broad bipartisan support.

The $855.1B package also includes a continuing resolution extending current funding levels through December 7 for any federal agencies that don’t get their FY19 appropriations bills passed by October 1 as well as a short-term extension of the Violence Against Women Act and sections of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act.

Conference Report Text

https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20180910/CRPT-115hrpt952.pdf

Joint Explanatory Statement

https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20180910/Joint%20%20Statement.pdf

Interior-Environment, Financial Services, Agriculture, Transportation HUD

House and Senate negotiators continue to work on a deal on the $154 billion spending package covering the Interior-Environment, Financial Services, Agriculture, and Transportation-HUD spending bills. When conferees met last week, there were disagreements over policy riders affecting environmental regulations. Two other issues holding up a conference agreement are a $585M “Fund for America’s Kids and Grandkids” and the federal employee pay raise.

FY2019 Appropriations Bills Status

Energy & Water, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, Legislative Branch

The House and Senate passed the $147.5B FY19 Energy & Water, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, Legislative Branch appropriations minibus conference agreement this week and sent the measure to the President for his signature.

The Senate passed the bill on Wednesday by a vote of 92 to 5. The five no votes were from Flake (R-AZ), Gillibrand (D-NY), Markey (D-MA), Paul (R-KY), and Warren (D-MA). The House followed and passed it on Thursday by a vote of 377 to 20 (two Democrats and 18 Republicans voted no). This is the first time in 10 years that Congress managed to pass three spending bills on time.

The spending package provided $98.1B for the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs bill (a 5.8% increase over FY18), $44.6B for the Energy & Water bill (a 3.2% increase over FY18), and $4.8B for the Legislative Branch bill (a 2.1% increase over FY18). It also included an additional $1.25B to cover an immediate funding shortfall for the Veterans Choice Program. The bill did not include any partisan policy riders that had been included in the House versions of the bills.

Conference Report

https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Conference%20Report%20to%20accompany%20H.R.%205895.pdf

Joint Explanatory Statement

https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Joint%20Explanatory%20Statement%20H.R.%205895.pdf

Defense, Labor HHS Education

House and Senate negotiators reached a compromise on the two biggest annual spending bills, paving the way for final adoption of the Defense and Labor HHS Education appropriations bills in time for the new fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1.

The $855B conference agreement also includes a continuing resolution (CR) that would fund the federal agencies that don’t get their full-year appropriations bills completed on time. The CR would extend current fiscal year funding levels for those agencies through December 7. Conferees hope to avoid a partial federal government shutdown by including the CR in the Defense minibus. The President would have to veto defense spending if he wanted to shutdown he federal government over border wall funding.

Like the Energy & Water, Military Construction-VA, Legislative Branch minibus conference agreement, this package does not include any of the partisan policy riders sought by House Republicans. While House conservatives have threatened to withhold their support for the bill on the floor, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-WI) is confident that the measure has enough bipartisan support for passage.

The Senate may take up the conference agreement next week. The House would then consider the measure when they return from recess the week of September 24.

Conference Report Text

https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20180910/CRPT-115hrpt952.pdf 

Joint Explanatory Statement

https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20180910/Joint%20%20Statement.pdf

Interior-Environment, Financial Services, Agriculture, Transportation HUD

House and Senate negotiators met this week to conference the final minibus spending package that they hope to pass before the end of this fiscal year. The $154B four-bill package includes the Interior-Environment, Financial Services, Agriculture, and Transportation HUD spending bills. While they had hoped to finalize an agreement this week, negotiators could not reach agreement on several partisan policy riders. Many of these riders are in the Interior-Environment portion of the minibus. Republicans agreed to forgo their riders in the other two minibus spending packages, but had yet to do so in this minibus. Negotiators are still hopeful that they will be able to reach a deal in the coming days.

FY2019 Appropriations Bills Status

The House is scheduled to be in session only seven more days before the fiscal year ends on September 30. The Senate has passed nine of its 12 annual spending bills, while the House has passed six. Their challenge is to craft bills that can get the Democratic support they need to pass the Senate while not losing too many conservatives in the House. The House and Senate have both said they are prepared to bring three minibus packages to the floor this month. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said the three minibus packages would be brought to the floor separate from the continuing resolution.

Energy & Water, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, Legislative Branch

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) wants to pass the Energy & Water, Military Construction-VA, and Legislative Branch appropriations conference report minibus spending package this month. Conferees worked this week to resolve disputes over several policy riders. An agreement is imminent according to conferees, and the measure may be on the House floor next week. The Military Construction-VA and Legislative Branch sections of the minibus were locked down earlier this week. Conferees are negotiating some final technical details and resolving some lingering disputes for the Energy & Water portion of the bill. The conference report could be released as late as Sunday and still meet the 72-hour requirement in the House to have it on the floor by Wednesday when the House reconvenes after a brief break for Rosh Hashana.

Defense, Labor HHS Education

The House approved by voice vote a motion to go to conference with the Senate on the $675B defense appropriations bill. The House named 13 conferees for the spending package, including the chairs and ranking members of the full committee, Defense Subcommittee, and Labor HHS Education Subcommittee – Reps. Frelinghuysen (R-NJ), Granger (R-TX), Cole (R-OK), Calvert (R-CA), Womack (R-AR), Aderholt (R-AL), Rogers (R-KY), Roby, (R-AL), Lowey (D-NY), Visclosky (D-IN), DeLauro (D-CT), Roybal-Allard (D-CA), and McCollum (D-MN). The Senate also appointed the chairs and ranking members: Shelby (R-AL), Blunt (R-MO), Graham (R-SC), Moran (R-KS), Durbin (D-IL), Murray (D-WA), and Leahy (D-VT).

House Republicans would like to pass the Defense spending bill before the new fiscal year, but it was combined with the Labor HHS Education bill in the Senate. Senators on both sides of the aisle want to keep the two bills together. The House Labor HHS Education bill has numerous controversial policy riders, which is why it hasn’t been brought to the House floor yet. House Labor HHS Education Appropriations subcommittee ranking member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) said her Republican counterparts had conceded to a $2B increase for the Labor HHS Education bill, which would align the House bill more closely with the Senate bill. Conservatives in the House may oppose this funding increase.

Conferees met on Thursday and are expected to report any remaining open issues to the full committee today. House Defense Appropriations subcommittee Chairwoman Kay Granger (R-TX) said that the conference could be wrapped up this week.

Interior Environment, Financial Services, Agriculture, Transportation HUD

The House minibus includes the Interior Environment and Financial Services bills, while the Senate minibus also included the Agriculture and Transportation HUD spending bills. The House has not considered the Agriculture and Transportation HUD spending bills on the floor. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL) said that they are still hoping to complete work on this minibus appropriations package. The House appointed the following conferees: Frelinghuysen (R-NJ), Aderholt (R-AL), Simpson (R-ID), Cole (R-OK), Diaz-Balart (R-FL), Graves (R-GA), Young (R-IA), Rutherford (R-FL), Lowey (D-NY), Price (D-NC), Bishop (D-GA), McCollum (D-MN), Quigley (D-IL), and Pingree (D-ME). The Senate appointed the following conferees: Murkowski (R-AK), Collins (R-ME), Lankford (R-OK), Hoeven (R-ND), Shelby (R-AL), Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Udall (D-NM), Reed (D-RI), Coons (D-DE), Merkley (D-OR), and Leahy (D-VT). Conferees met this week and, while the meeting was considered productive, they reported that they have several big issues to work out.House Transportation HUD Appropriations subcommittee chairman Diaz-Balart (R-FL) said yesterday that he is not sure the THUD bill is going to be part of the package that becomes law.

Continuing Resolution

The remaining spending bills not conferenced and passed would require a continuing resolution (CR) to fund them beginning October 1. A CR extends appropriations at current funding levels without allowing for new programs or major shifts in priorities. The CR could last through Thanksgiving or Christmas, or potentially extend into January 2019 and the new Congress.

Shutdown

Congress’ main goal this month is to avoid a shutdown. House and Senate leadership and the Vice President have been lobbying the President to postpone a shutdown fight over funding for his border wall until after the election. While some White House insiders are confident the President will sign spending bills to keep the government open, there are some immigration hardliners advising him to fight the border wall issue now while Republicans still control the House.

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told the Republican Study Committee earlier this week that the President doesn’t want a shutdown in October. Republican members in the meeting left with the understanding that the border wall fight will likely wait until after the midterm elections in November. However, after Republican leaders met with the President on Wednesday afternoon the President told reporters that he is still open to shutting down the federal government, “If it’s about border security, I’m willing to do anything.” And today the President said, “I would do it [shutdown] because I think it’s a great political issue.”

In related border wall news, House Armed Services Committee and House Appropriations Committee Ranking Democrats sent a letter to Defense Secretary Mattis this week in which they urge him to oppose a request by the Department of Homeland Security to divert $450M in defense funding toward border infrastructure along the Barry M. Goldwater Range in Arizona.

https://democrats-armedservices.house.gov/_cache/files/c/9/c9c33929-eb73-493a-8aad-bed677d76698/57F918A410026BC3586DF7C5BDA95E1F.letter-to-secdef-on-border-wall.pdf

FY2019 Appropriations Bills Status